Aggrieved investors and their congressional representatives on Wednesday blasted an investor-protection fund for limiting payouts in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme.

“So many thousands of people will lose money that we will never hear of,” said Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y. “There is not enough money in this insurance fund to make them whole to $500,000. We have a mess on our hands.”

The Securities Investors Protection Corp. has paid out $559 million to more than 2,800 direct investors in Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities — more than the total paid out over the previous 38 years.

But the reimbursements, while large, cover only a fraction of the 16,000 claims made in the Madoff case. Excluded are “indirect” investors who invested through pension funds, hedge funds and other channels.

The SIPC pays up to $500,000 for losses due to fraud or bankruptcy at a brokerage firm but only to “direct” customers under current rules.

The House Financial Services Committee heard testimony Wednesday on whether that should change.

Lakewood resident Pete Leveton testified on behalf of 205 individuals who had their accounts frozen by the Agile Group in Boulder last fall.

Agile told investors that their investments were spread across 52 hedge funds, but they were actually concentrated with Madoff and another fraudulent scheme run by convicted Minnesota businessman Tom Petters.

“We indirect investors lost our savings to the same fraudulent Ponzi scheme and suffered the same financial devastation,” Leveton testified. “We will recoup zero.”

High-profile Colorado investors with Agile included talk-show host Mike Rosen and former Congressman Tom Tancredo. Some investors have sued Agile directly, but most are seeking other forms of restitution.

Tancredo said many investors who actively pursued an investment with Madoff and may have even known him are getting paid back, while those who relied on advisers and had never heard of Madoff aren’t.

“People who had their funds invested indirectly were less culpable,” argues Tancredo, who did not participate in Wednesday’s hearings.

Rep. Ed Perlmutter, a Golden Democrat and member of the House committee, is among those supporting broader protections for indirect investors, especially in cases where regulators fail to safeguard the public.

“These are ordinary folks who invested their life savings in what they believed to be safe pension plans and trust funds,” Perlmutter said.

But others argued that risk is part of the investment market, investors need to be more diligent and that large payouts aren’t economically feasible.

“The system will collapse if you cover every indirect customer,” cautioned Columbia University law professor John Coffee.

I have worked at The Post since late 2000. My beats include residential real estate, economic development and the Colorado economy. Other publications where I have worked include Financial Times Energy, The Denver Business Journal and Arab News. My parents immigrated from northern Italy, although my great grandparents came to Central City in the late 1800s.

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